--- /Users/jocrau/Downloads/typo3_src-4.1.6/typo3/sysext/cms/tslib/class.tslib_content.php
+++ class.tslib_content_patched.php
@@ -3611,18 +3611,72 @@
 		$afterstring = trim($options[1]);
 		$crop2space = trim($options[2]);
 		if ($chars)	{
-			if (strlen($content)>abs($chars))	{
-				if ($chars<0)	{
-					$content = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->csConvObj->substr($GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset,$content,$chars);
-					$trunc_at = strpos($content, ' ');
-					$content = ($trunc_at&&$crop2space) ? $afterstring.substr($content,$trunc_at) : $afterstring.$content;
+			if (strlen($content) > abs($chars))	{
+				$tags = 'a|b|blockquote|body|div|em|font|form|h1|h2|h3|h4|h5|h6|i|li|map|ol|option|p|pre|sub|sup|select|span|strong|table|td|textarea|tr|u|ul|br|hr|img|input|area';
+				$regEx = '/(\<\/?(?:' . $tags . ')(?:\s*\>|\s[^\>]*\>))/si';
+				$splittedContent = preg_split($regEx, $content, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
+				$strlen = 0;
+				// reverse array for 'back cropping'
+				$splittedContent = $chars < 0 ? array_reverse($splittedContent) : $splittedContent;
+				// crop the text (chars of a tag are not counted)
+				for ($offset=0; $offset < count($splittedContent); $offset++) {
+					// debug($splittedContent[$offset],1);
+					if ($offset%2 === 0) {
+						$thisStrLen = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->csConvObj->strlen($GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset, html_entity_decode($splittedContent[$offset],ENT_COMPAT,$GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset));
+						if (($strlen + $thisStrLen > abs($chars))) {
+							$cropPosition = $chars - $strlen;
+							if ($chars < 0) {
+								$splittedContent[$offset] = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->csConvObj->substr($GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset, $splittedContent[$offset], $cropPosition);
+								$truncatePosition = strpos($splittedContent[$offset], ' ');
+								$splittedContent[$offset] = ($truncatePosition && $crop2space) ? $afterstring . $GLOBALS['TSFE']->csConvObj->substr($GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset, $splittedContent[$offset], $truncatePosition) :  $afterstring . $splittedContent[$offset];
+							} else {
+								$splittedContent[$offset] = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->csConvObj->substr($GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset, $splittedContent[$offset], 0, $cropPosition);
+								$truncatePosition = strrpos($splittedContent[$offset], ' ');
+								$splittedContent[$offset] = ($truncatePosition && $crop2space) ? $GLOBALS['TSFE']->csConvObj->substr($GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset, $splittedContent[$offset], 0, $truncatePosition) . $afterstring : $splittedContent[$offset] . $afterstring;								
+							}
+							// remember the $offset where we cropped the content
+							$croppedOffset = $offset;
+							break;							
+						} else {
+							$strlen += $thisStrLen;
+						}
+					}
+				}									
+				// close cropped tags
+				$closingTags = array();
+				$tagName = '';
+				$openingTagRegEx = '/^<([a-zA-Z0-6]+)(?:\s|>)/';
+				$closingTagRegEx = '/^<\/([a-zA-Z0-6]+)(?:\s|>)/';
+				for ($offset=$croppedOffset-1; $offset >= 0; $offset = $offset-2) {
+					if (preg_match('/\/\>$/',$splittedContent[$offset])) continue; // ignore empty element tags (e.g. <br />)
+					preg_match($chars<0?$closingTagRegEx:$openingTagRegEx, $splittedContent[$offset], $matches);
+					$tagName = $matches[1];
+					// seek for the closing (or opening) tag
+					if (trim($tagName)!=='') {
+						$seekingTagName = '';
+						for ($seekingOffset=$offset+2; $seekingOffset < count($splittedContent); $seekingOffset = $seekingOffset+2) {
+							preg_match($chars<0?$openingTagRegEx:$closingTagRegEx, $splittedContent[$seekingOffset], $matches);
+							$seekingTagName = $matches[1];
+							if (($tagName === $seekingTagName) && ($seekingOffset > $croppedOffset)) {
+								$closingTags[] = $splittedContent[$seekingOffset];
+								break;
+							}
+						}
+					}
+				}
+				// drop the unnecessary items of the content array
+				array_splice($splittedContent,$croppedOffset+1);
+				// reverse array for 'back cropping'
+				if ($chars < 0) {
+					$splittedContent = array_merge($splittedContent,$closingTags);					
+					$splittedContent = array_reverse($splittedContent);
 				} else {
-					$content = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->csConvObj->substr($GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset,$content,0,$chars);
-					$trunc_at = strrpos($content, ' ');
-					$content = ($trunc_at&&$crop2space) ? substr($content, 0, $trunc_at).$afterstring : $content.$afterstring;
+					$splittedContent = array_merge($splittedContent,$closingTags);					
 				}
+				$content = implode('',$splittedContent);
 			}
 		}
+		
 		return $content;
 	}